Mark Hamill Has Never Seen This Trailer For 'The Empire Strikes Back' Until Now
The Empire Strikes Back opened 41 years ago on May 21, 1980. Everyone was excited to see the saga continued with Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Han Solo, Chewbacca, C-3PO, and R2-D2. Fans still remembered the destruction of the Death Star, and could not wait to see what the Empire had in store for our heroes. Back in the time long before YouTube and the internet, when movie trailers were only shown in movie theaters (while you were still getting popcorn or using the restroom), many probably did not get a chance to see the trailer for the next installment in the Star Wars saga back when it first came out. Well, it appears that Mr. Mark Hamill himself was one of those people. We always joked that actors usually never saw themselves in the movie they were in because they had already lived it. Well, apparently some never saw the trailer of their movie either. When Stephen Stanton, voice actor of Wilhuff Tarkin in The Clone Wars, Rebels, and The Bad Batch tweeted the rarely seen trailer, Hamill could not help but comment on it.
First off, we agree with Hamill here. Hats off to Harrison Ford for the voiceover. His radio announcer role was spot on, drawing us into this adventure: “coming to your galaxy next summer.” Of course, Hamill would know a thing or two about voice acting work. After all, he was THE voice of Joker in Batman: The Animated Series.
“Luke Skywalker and Han Solo rescued the princess, destroyed the Death Star, but their story didn’t end there!”
Then his tweet told us to “ignore the part where I make a move on my sister,” once again poking fun at "the kiss." Wait, Luke never made a move on Leia. She was the one that kissed him to make Han Solo jealous. The infamous Luke and Leia kiss came after her outburst, “Why you stuck up half-witted scruffy looking nerf herder!” It was filled with comedic overtones. It was Leia getting back at Han. Luke and Chewbacca were the uncomfortable third and fourth wheels in this “lover’s quarrel.”
Let’s rewind this trailer video a little. That brief clip of Luke and Leia’s kiss in the trailer looked pretty mutual and romantic. Was that in the movie?
Remember, back when the original Star Wars trilogy came out, we did not find out that Luke and Leia were siblings until Return of the Jedi. (Although we did find out in The Empire Strikes Back who Luke’s father was). Allegedly, George Lucas did not plan for them to be brother and sister. There was supposed to be a subplot of a love triangle between Han, Leia, and Luke. After his near death experience with the wampa, Luke realized his romantic feeling for Leia, and decided to make a move. C-3PO humorously interrupted the two. This was why the kiss in the deleted scene that was shown in the trailer seemed to be of romantic nature compared to the comedic nature of the kiss that made it in the final cut of the movie. They made the right decision, as that kiss would have been even more scandalous had it remained in the final version of the movie. After the relationship between Luke and Leia was revealed in Return of the Jedi, we would look back to their kiss in The Empire Strikes Back and see that the two never really had a romantic connection. Leia was just trying to win an argument with Han. Hamill would later describe the kiss as “innocestuous.” Since the two did not know that they were siblings in the first two movies, they were technically innocent of the unfortunate incestuous interaction that happened.
We did not get to see much of Luke and Leia's interaction as siblings in Return of the Jedi other than the brief conversation they had on Endor. However, we would see the close bond demonstrated in their emotional reunion in The Last Jedi. In our world, the two comedians Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher would continue to poke fun at the kiss. No doubt Luke and Leia would laugh about the moment many times as they rebuilt the Republic and their family.
Source(s): Cinema Blend